Linden Art Prize 2019 catalogue

LINDEN ART PRIZE 2019

Originally a historic home, Linden New Art is a unique gallery whose restrictions become starting points for artists to explore, respond and create.

As a home for new art we are open to bold ideas, to different ways of experiencing and seeing the world and oneself. We believe this role is an important part of contemporary art and we aim to foster a curious audience that is open to engaging with new thinking and sometimes challenging viewpoints.

INTRODUCTION

Linden is proud to be presenting the fourth Linden Art Prize.

The award was established to celebrate excellence and nurture a new generation of artists who have completed Postgraduate

study from a Victorian University.

The prizes are awarded to celebrate and support the transition from study to professional practice and are supported by a tailored mentoring program from industry experts.

We look forward to watching the success of the artists presented this year as they respond to the opportunities that emerge in the years ahead.

Melinda Martin Director February 2019

Linden New Art. Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

Linden New Art is grateful to the many people who have supported the Linden Art Prize. They too share our passion for supporting a new generation of Australian artists on their journey to vibrant artistic careers.

Thank you to the shortlisting committee who had the difficult task of choosing the eight finalists from the 36 applications we received. Thank you for your thoughtful and vibrant debate in shortlisting the finalists for the prize.

• > Charlotte Christie, Curatorial Manager, Koorie Heritage Trust • > Claire Watson, Senior Curator, Bundoora Homestead • > Linden New Art Board member Owen Craven

THANK YOU

Our final award judges who had the very difficult task of selecting the winners. Thank you for your diligent assessment and robust discussion: > Mark Feary, Artistic Director at Gertude Contemporary > Lisa Sullivan, Senior Curator, Geelong Gallery.

Linden Art Prize 2019 Judges [L-R] Lisa Sullivan and Mark Feary. Photograph > Jasmin McNeill.

FINALISTS > ANDREW ATCHISON > FARNAZ DADFAR > JAYE EARLY > TAMMY LAW > SHANE NICHOLAS > PIE RANKINE > GEOFF ROBINSON > SIYING ZHOU

ANDREW ATCHISON Andrew Atchison is an artist, educator and writer currently based in Melbourne/Narrm. He completed a Master of Fine Arts (research) at MADA, Monash University in 2018. He has exhibited extensively, including at Testing Grounds, Greenwood Street Projects, Light Projects, First Draft, West Space, Kings ARI, Seventh, First Site Gallery, and Next Wave and Midsumma Festivals. He has completed several artworks for public space, including a public art commission for the City of Melbourne. Recently he was accepted into the Studio Artist Program at Gertrude Contemporary, and will also hold a solo exhibition at Incinerator Gallery later in 2019. Visit > andrewatchison.com

Andrew Atchison, image courtesy of the artist. Photograph > Jeremy Eaton.

Andrew Atchison, Figure in the Round (Mobile), 2018, aluminium, auto paint, stainless steel, & mixed media, dimensions variable.

Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

ARTIST STATEMENT These artworks are propositional responses to the question, how can queerness be brought to form in the absence of either bodily figuration or the art-historical tropes of Queer Art? Each appropriates the sculptural archetype of the figure-in-the-round as a foundation against which to articulate a queer subject as variously complex, unconventional or perverse, through abstract visual language.

Figure in the Round (Reclining Nude) combines the self-inverting forms of the möbius strip and continuous text within an abstracted ‘body’ to confuse judgments of ‘proper’ orientation; an object lesson regarding how queer subjects can confound normative systems of social organisation. Where a traditional reclining nude renders its subject wholly passive and available, the partial interiority and obscured surfaces of this reconstruction frustrate easy objectification.

Figure in the Round (Mobile) adopts the free-wheeling mobile form to depict the subject as a shifting constellation of abstractly symbolic components. This mobility allows infinite possible arrangements, frustrating the identification of any ideal, singular viewing perspective. Similarly, queerness cannot be reduced to an isolated representative figure or moment in time. Rather, infinite viable representations are constantly elaborated, expanded, and revised.

Andrew Atchison, Linden Art Prize 2019, [installation view]. Image courtesy of the artist.

Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

FARNAZ DADFAR Farnaz Dadfar is an Iranian-born Australian artist, based in Melbourne. She has exhibited widely in Iran and Australia since 2004. In 2006 she was selected as one of the top 30 Iranian contemporary artists for the exhibition New Generation presented at Homa Gallery Tehran. In 2017, Dadfar was selected as one of the 30 finalists for The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize, as well as being a recipient of the Galloway Lawson Prize from the University of Melbourne, awarded by ACCA, for the Proud17 exhibition at the Margaret Lawrence Gallery. Dadfar gained a Bachelor of Painting from the University of Science and Culture, Tehran, and then completed a Graduate Certificate in Visual Arts and Master of Contemporary Art at the VCA, University of Melbourne. She is currently a research candidate in the Master of Fine Art (visual art) at the VCA. Visit > farnazdadfar.com

Farnaz Dadfar, The Churchie 2017, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane. Photograph > ChloĂŤ Callistemon.

Farnaz Dadfar, Untitled #1, 2017, acrylic & ink on canvas, 190.5 x 160 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

ARTIST STATEMENT By constructing rhythmical, poetic and metaphysical schemes, I invite the viewer on a vector trip through atomic aesthetics and psychedelic femininities. My transdisciplinary approach was born in an era characterised by postproduction and employs alienated quotations, reiterative templates and repetitive patterns with a view to revealing unconscious and altered states. Such experiences demand a juxtaposition of expected and unexpected colour palettes—an oblique reference to the post-dialectical entanglement of Eastern and Western cultural values.

I use my painting as a departure point for my digital manipulation technique and expand it into the new photographic and technological version of the painting, which I then apply to different materials such as wallpaper or aluminium composite. This method is suggested as a potential vehicle to generate a map of possibilities for rethinking the contemporary art model. It is experienced within the socio-political conditions of cultural re-production that essentially seeks to survive by re-framing and re-purposing its environment in late-capitalism.

Farnaz Dadfar, Linden Art Prize 2019, [installation view]. Image courtesy of the artist.

Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

JAYE EARLY Jaye Early gained his PhD in Visual Art from the VCA in 2018. He also holds an MA in Studio Art (Painting) from the University of Sydney and a BA in Art History/ Theory from the University of New South Wales. Since 2008, Early has exhibited widely in Australia, Europe and the USA, most recently presenting solo exhibitions at Kings Art-Run and Rubicon ARI in Melbourne. Early has been a finalist in numerous art awards since 2010, including the Doug Moran Portrait Prize (2013), the Victorian Indigenous Art Award (2014), the University of Melbourne’s Murrup Barak Award (2015), the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize (2016), the Koorie Art Prize (2016) and the Sir John Sulman Prize (2018).

In 2015 Early was granted the Fay Marles Scholarship for Indigenous Graduate Research Students. Early’s work is represented in the National Gallery of Victoria and Victoria University collections. Visit > jayeearly.com

Jaye Early, image courtesy of the artist.

Jaye Early, Private Life is Public Business [still], 2018, HD video. Image courtesy of the artist.

ARTIST STATEMENT My works adopt an autoethnographic lens to navigate hesitant paths of fragility and fear present within a variety of, mostly invisible, private and public social contracts, and the emotional anxieties associated with living in a late-capitalist landscape. An intention is to consciously transform my personal dislocations into a visual strategy of self-disclosure. I become my own subject, often using my body as a site and surface for art making. Oscillating between self-mockery and sincerity, I aim to construct a forum for my own artistic and non-artistic failures, successes, self-delusions, and disappointments.

I am stimulated by exploring the reality in and between what is often not permissible in public spaces and spheres.

With a focused interest in the authenticity of suppressed emotions, I am wanting to navigate, and respond to, the consequences of placing the personal into the public. My practice examines how the boundaries between private and public have become increasingly problematised within our networked and confessional-like society.

Jaye Early, Linden Art Prize 2019, [installation view]. Image courtesy of the artist.

Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

TAMMY LAW Tammy Law gained a PhD from RMIT University in 2018, having completed a Bachelor of Photography (Honours) from Griffith University, Brisbane, in 2010. Since 2007, Law has exhibited her work regularly across Australia and internationally. Law’s work was included in the Biennale of Australian Art in Ballarat in 2017 and the Yangon Photo Festival in 2018. Law has been a finalist in numerous awards including the Head On Portrait and Landscape Prizes in 2016, as well as gaining an honourable mention in the Tokyo International Foto Awards in 2017. Law’s documentary photographic practice revolves around issues of migration, diaspora and cultural difference, informed by experiences of being Asian Australian. Law’s works have been widely published, with clients including Domain, The Wall Street Journal, Est Magazine, Voyeur Magazine and Australian Traveller. Visit > tammylaw.com

Tammy Law, image courtesy of the artist.

Tammy Law, Away from Home, Tham Hin Camp/Brisbane, 2016, C-type print, 78 x 112 cm (framed).

Image couresty of the artist.

ARTIST STATEMENT These images and photobook offer an insight into my practice-based research project that uses photography to explore the dualities that surround the idea of home: between presence and absence, permanence and impermanence and belonging and displacement. This work engages in the lived experiences of liminality from the perspectives of the transnational diaspora from Burma. Images of stateless environments and domestic and psychological spaces have been combined to comment on feelings of statelessness within the transnational lives of the people involved.

The significance of the diasporic transnational network needs to be further elucidated, not only in terms of the political and peacemaking contexts that exist but also through ethnographic studies that investigate the multifaceted identities and sense of belonging in these communities. These works aim to develop new understandings of the multidimensional complexities of being a refugee, during a time of increasing displacement and familial upheaval.

Tammy Law, Linden Art Prize 2019, [installation view]. Image courtesy of the artist.

Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

SHANE NICHOLAS Shane Nicholas gained a Master of Fine Art from the VCA, University of Melbourne in 2018, having completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) in 2003. Since 2012, Nicholas has exhibited his work regularly in both solo and group exhibitions nationally. Nicholas won the Peter Redlich Memorial Prize in 2017 and has previously been a finalist for a number of awards and prizes, including the Kenilworth Painting Prize, the Wilson Visual Art Award and the AME Bale Art Prize. Most recently, Nicholas was a finalist for the Incinerator Art for Social Change Award, 2018.

Visit > shanenicholas.com

Shane Nicholas, image courtesy of the artist.

Shane Nicholas, Three different scans of the same figure, 2017, polylactide, 120 x 85 x 33 cm.

Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photograph.

ARTIST STATEMENT I use systems of art making to explore the mechanisms inherent in current smart technologies to investigate how the human subject could be viewed by systems of online surveillance and subsequently represented. I employ such systems to reproduce the human form based on the mishandling of data. The resulting forms echo the fundamental contradictions inherent in systems of online surveillance.

The artwork produced through this process draws from limitations common to neural networks that process collected data. By decontextualizing, filtering, fragmenting and reconstructing data to create distorted versions of the original, the resulting sculptures present a vision of how systems alter subject matter when rendering a model from reality.

These sculptures were produced using an iterative method of 3D scanning, 3D printing, rescanning and reprinting.

The distortions in form were directly caused through errors that occurred when translating the subject into digital data, and then back into a real-world object.

Shane Nicholas, Linden Art Prize 2019, [installation view]. Image courtesy of the artist.

Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

PIE RANKINE Pie Rankine was born in Adelaide and moved to Melbourne to undertake a Bachelor of Fine Art degree at the VCA, which she completed in 1981. After travelling through Europe, Rankine returned to Australia and exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. In 2007, Rankine moved out of the city to live full time in the Chewton Bushlands, a move that greatly influenced her art practice. Rankine gained an Honours degree in Visual Art from La Trobe University in Bendigo in 2014, where she also completed a Master of Visual Arts in 2018.

Rankine is represented in both international and Australian public and private collections.

Pie Rankine, image courtesy of the artist. Photograph > Uma Dingemans.

Pie Rankine, Ruptures, Holes, Tears and Distortions, 2018, clay and mesh, dimensions variable [detail].

Image courtesy of the artist.

ARTIST STATEMENT My work investigates the profound effect that moving from the city to living in the bush had on my art practice. This work is an experimentation in clay and installation, that includes personal reflections on DIY and off-grid living. My practice has also uncovered insights into how art can express and embody new modes of living to contribute to the field of contemporary art.

This work investigates the ongoing production of subjectivity as it is changed by my entanglement in the environment of which I am a part, experienced as materiality of all kinds; social, mental and environmental. Each element of this installation is arranged so as to suggest the movement of bodies through boundaries and territory.

This work was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and a La Trobe University Postgraduate Research Scholarship.

Pie Rankine, Linden Art Prize 2019, [installation view]. Image courtesy of the artist.

Photograph >Theresa Harrison Photography.

GEOFF ROBINSON Geoff Robinson is a Melbourne-based artist who creates event-based artworks that explore the relationship between the durational qualities of sound and performance and the spatial conditions of physical sites. Recent projects include: Itinerant Sound, multiple sites around Victoria (2015-ongoing), Itinerant Object/Propositions for Change, Sarah Scout Presents (2016); room overlay/5 weeks/thursdays 6-7pm/accumulation, West Space (2015); 15 locations/15 minutes/15 days, Federation Square Melbourne (2014); Site Overlay/Acoustic Survey across three public sites in Melbourne (2013). Robinson was a studio artist at Gertrude Contemporary (2003-05) and has held residencies and exhibited at Helsinki International Artist Programme, MoKS Estonia, Australia Council for the Arts Greene St studio New York and Seoul Art Space. He was awarded the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture 2014 and completed a PhD in Fine Art at Monash University in 2018. Visit > soundcloud.com/geoffrobinson

Geoff Robinson, image courtesy of the artist.

Geoff Robinson, Itinerant Sound, 2015 ongoing, performance with handbells. Image courtesy of the artist.

ARTIST STATEMENT Itinerant Sound is an ongoing project that utilises sound to unravel layers of duration through a temporal and spatial exploration of site. Itinerant Sound has been performed multiple times since 2015 and each iteration has been situated in a different site, featuring distinct geography and contexts, and with specific instructional scores. The project utilises hand bells and participants to articulate different spatial configurations in a site across multiple durations. The hand bells produce a sharp and loud attack that transmits a highly resonant sound that can travel long distances. It is the hand bell’s resonance, mobility and multiplicity of sound that enables the Itinerant Sound projects to explore a complex temporal and spatial relationship between sound and site. Each iteration traverses duration across the history and geography of the designated site and as an ongoing project extends the exploration across a greater expanse of time and situation.

The artist acknowledges the Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Yalukut Weelam and Yiatmathong people as the custodians of the land in which the Itinerant Sound projects have taken place, and they pay respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.

The Federation Handbells are managed by Museum Victoria on behalf of Creative Victoria.

Geoff Robinson, Linden Art Prize 2019, [installation view]. Image courtesy of the artist.

Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

SIYING ZHOU Siying Zhou gained a Master of Fine Art from the VCA, University of Melbourne in 2017, having already gained a Master of Contemporary Art from the VCA in 2015 and a Master of Multimedia Design from the University of Sydney in 2005. Zhou’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, as well as being included in festivals including Melbourne’s Channels festival in 2015 and 2017. Zhou has undertaken artist residencies at the Australian Tapestry Workshop (2017), Picture Berlin, Germany (2016) and at the Jiwar Community Centre, Barcelona, Spain (2013). Over the past decade Zhou has been awarded numerous grants and prizes, including The City of Yarra 2018/19 Small Project Grants (2018), the NGV Women’s Association Award, which she won in both 2015 and 2017, and the John and Mary Kerley International Travel Scholarship (2016). Visit > siyingzhou.com

Siying Zhou, image courtesy of the artist.

Siying Zhou, Linden Art Prize 2019, [installation view].

Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph > Theresa Harrison photography.

ARTIST STATEMENT As a Chinese-born Australian, I perceive the world to be a multifaceted and unfixed entity comprised of varying and conflicting sets of knowledge, histories and ideologies. Through competition and negotiation among them, an ‘in-between’ space and a hybrid cultural identity are formed. In this ‘in-between’ space, the division between ‘we, you and they’ is ironically drawn upon through ambiguous cultural definitions and multiculturalism is performed subtly through the enunciation of cultural difference in everyday life. Language, food, the human body and ideas of selfhood, are used as a way to convey cross-cultural dialogue, conflict and intersections. By showing disparate cultural materials in an amalgamated form, these works provoke an examination of the fixed ideas about Chinese, Australian and English cultures. The decentralised spatial layout of the installation of the works offers the viewer a fluid perceptive position and an open-ended interpretation of each work.

Siying Zhou, Just call me Jo, 2017, plastic sheets, hair, mirror, steel frame, golden bricks & golden pins, 61 x 70 x 150 cm. Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

PERFORMANCE > ITINERANT SOUND WITH GEOFF ROBINSON 24.02.19, 15.03.19 & 07.04.19 > FREE BOOK A SPOT > bit.ly/itinerant_sound Join Linden Art Prize 2019 artist Geoff Robinson for his resonating performances of Itinerant Sound. Using bronze hand bells from Museum Victoria, participants will follow instructional scores to create temporary sonic beacons that highlight the social, political and geographical history of St Kilda.

EVENTS

Image courtesy of the artist.

Photograph > Keelan O’Hehir.

NOTABLE OBSERVANCES > INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 07.03.19 > $25 includes drink on arrival. Ages 18+ BOOK A SPOT > bit.ly/arts_gender_balance In 2019, International Women’s Day is campaigning to “better the balance, better the world.” To celebrate our leaders who are forging the way for gender balance in Australian contemporary arts, join a panel discussion with artist Elvis Richardson, founder of CoUNTess, and artist Ilona Nelson, founder of This Wild Song in discussion with Linden New Art Director Melinda Martin.

Visitors at Community Day 2018.

Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

MEET THE ARTISTS > LINDEN ART PRIZE 2019 WINNERS 08.03.19 > FREE BOOK A SPOT > bit.ly/lindenartprize_winners Join the winners of the Linden Art Prize 2019 in conversation with Linden New Art Curator Juliette Hanson. Learn about their ideas and techniques that inspire their artworks, as well as the extensive research that has guided their practices.

Meet the Artist talk with Natalie Ryan.

Photograph > Jasmin McNeill.

CRAFTERNOON FOR KIDS > PERFECT BALANCE 16.03.19 > $15 BOOK A SPOT > bit.ly/perfect_balance Kids are invited to join Linden Art Prize 2019 artist Andrew Atchison in an artist-led creative workshop. They will each create a perfectly balanced hanging mobile artwork from diverse objects as a kind of self-portrait, to explore how themes of diversity and personal uniqueness can be expressed through art.

Kids activity at Community Day 2018.

Photograph > Theresa Harrison Photography.

ARTIST SPEAKEASY > HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR ARTWORK 19.03.19 > $11 BOOK A SPOT > bit.ly/photograph_your_artwork Artists are invited hear from photographer Theresa Harrison and Linden New Art Director Melinda Martin to understand how good image documentation can be curcial to a professional art practice. Learn about photography equipment, lighting, editing and how to use the images appropriately for galleries and media sources.

Artist Speakeasy about grant application writing. Photograph > Jasmin McNeill.

BILINGUAL ARTIST TALK IN FARSI > FARNAZ DADFAR 29.03.19 > FREE BOOK A SPOT > bit.ly/farsi_tour Join Linden Art Prize 2019 artist Farnaz Dadfar for a special bilingual artist talk in Dadfar’s first language Farsi. In this artistled tour, hear Dadfar discuss how she uses colour and pattern in her practice to depict the entaglement of Eastern and Western cultural values.

Farnaz Dadfar, The Churchie 2017, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane. Photograph > ChloĂŤ Callistemon.

CRAFTERNOON FOR ADULTS > NAUGHTY EMBROIDERY 03.4.19 > $66 includes all materials. Ages 18+ BOOK A SPOT > bit.ly/naughty_embroidery Pop culture has reinvigorated the art of embroidery to express the cheeky and sometimes downright naughty. Join artist Angela Rossitto for an X-rated crafternoon and learn the delicate skill of stitching skulls, butts, boobs, nips and tips into sweet (and not so sweet) ornaments for your home.

Embroidery of a skull. Image courtesy of the artist.

ON HOLIDAYS AT LINDEN > RETHINKING DESIGN 06.4.19 to 14.04.19 > FREE DROP-IN ACTIVITY Inspired by Linden Art Prize 2019 artist Farnaz Dadfar, kids will experiment with colour, pattern and design. Dadfar’s art practice layers kaleidoscopic patterns, colours and ornamental imagery to construct new imaginary worlds and inspire possibilities for rethinking design.

Farnaz Dadfar, Untitled #1, 2017, acrylic and ink on canvas, 190.5 x 160 cm.

Photograph > Simon Strong.

BILINGUAL ARTIST TALK IN MANDARIN > SIYING ZHOU 12.04.19 > FREE BOOK A SPOT > bit.ly/mandarin_tour Join Linden Art Prize 2019 artist Siying Zhou for a special bilingual artist talk in Zhou’s first language Mandarin. In this artist-led tour, hear Zhou discuss her exploration of cultural differences, selfhood and social conventions as a Chinese-born Australian.

TO BOOK YOUR SPOT > VISIT lindenarts.org/page/events

Siying Zhou, image courtesy of the artist.

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DIRECTOR: MELINDA MARTIN CURATOR: JULIETTE HANSON DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: LYN JOHNSON EVENTS COORDINATOR: JASMIN McNEILL GALLERY ADMINISTRATORS: MADELINE FERME, SOPHIE GERHARD

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COVER IMAGE > Pie Rankine, The Student from Ruptures, Holes, Tears and Distortions, 2018, clay and mesh, dimensions variable [detail]. Image courtesy of the